As POTS lines continue to disappear, alternatives proliferate

LAFAYETTE, La.—Multi-site central station monitoring company Acadian Monitoring Services on Aug. 26 announced a new partnership with life safety solutions supplier Interlogix to provide what the two companies call a reliable IP answer to communications without POTS lines.

"Several of our dealers in the banking arena requested the integration to better serve their needs. After due diligence we saw the value of adding this receiver group," Acadian director of monitoring services Kenny Savoie told Security Systems News. "Interlogix is known for their reliable product line and together we now have products that integrate together to further advance dealers' portfolios."

According to an Acadian release, the company has added Verex IP receivers from Interlogix to its central station in the greater Chicago area. The addition expands the company's portfolio of service offerings to its dealers.

What differentiates a Verex IP receiver from other solutions?

"The Verex devices transmit SIA format over IP with very little dealer programming at the end-user level," Savoie told SSN. "The dealers also have access to remote programming through the network device over the director software … This is an excellent solution for high end IP security monitoring for the industry."

How does the Verex solution get around common problems with alarm signal transmission over IP?

"The Verex RP1000 Receiver continuously monitors all communications in its environment. It reports lost communications with panels in the field as well as lost communications with central station automation software," Verex sales leader Bill Lozon told SSN. "The continued heartbeat signal sent by the RP1000 to any automation package assures instantaneous notification of any communications anomaly."

Anomalies due to incompatibility of DTMF (dual-tone-multi-frequency) signaling upon which clean alarm signal transmission depends and IP communications can be common when transmitting alarm signals over IP.

"We all know that ultimately POTS service will be discontinued in many regions of the U.S. in the very near future," Lozon said. "Anytime we can expand the choices integrators have to protect their customers' investment, it's a good thing."

Interlogix is a business of UTC Fire & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp.